By Sheila Mckenzie-
A fraudulent student who swindled over £8,000 from unsuspecting women posed as a solicitor and pretended to represent ‘extremely vulnerable’ women in court cases has been jailed for four years and handed a ten-year restraining order.
Davey, 49, who has previously committed 57 fraud offences and 33 theft-related offence pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud by false representation, making articles to use in fraud, possessing articles to use in fraud and theft. He was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court. Davey was studying a degree in criminology and psychology and had been volunteering with the probation service after his release from an earlier prison sentence in 2017, but was recalled to prison for 28 days in November last year.
Deceptive Davey fabricated detailed lies to paint a false image of himself as a solicitor, cheating women of thousands of pounds in the process. The big time fraudster managed to convince a woman he met in the bar that he was a solicitor. One of the women who cannot be named told The Eye Of Media.Com :
” He seemed so convincing. He was self assured and well spoken, I feel stupid that he could have fooled me in this way. He is a scammer and the lowest of lows to put women through this kind of ordeal. What makes it more heart breaking is that he knew children were involved, but still had no conscience”.
Evil Dvey put two women in touch with a fictitious solicitor who offered to represent them in family court cases at a discount price. The dubious student received the money into his own bank account, pretending it had gone into the account of the none existent solicitor.
Davey made excuses when he was due to meet the women, telling them that their court cases were going well and emailing them a number of documents to support his lies. The dodgy criminal also lied that one of the women had won full custody of her children and had been awarded £65,000.The court heard one victim lost about £8,000 to Davey. The woman also paid for items including a television and PlayStation and gave him more than £400 for private health scans after he claimed he feared he had bowel cancer. Another victim spent about £400 on legal fee
Davey’s lies led to the women were not represented in court and both their cases were put in ‘severe jeopardy’. He went as far as posing to be a police officer and a probation worker, and convincing the woman he was in love with her in order to extort money. He also sent fraudulent emails claiming to be from Warrington Borough Council and one from Merseyside police Chief Constable Andy Cooke to support his fraudulent claims.
Both victims from Warrington Cheshire, were told not to attend family court hearings, making them appear none co-operative with the case. Detective Constable Laura Gilbert of Warrington CID said: ”Stephen Davey is a manipulative and despicable individual who has knowingly preyed on extremely vulnerable victims. His offending showed significant premeditation and he attempted to cover his tracks at every turn.
Sentencing Davey, Judge Robert Warner said: “ The time has come for you to stop and causing harm to others. others.”
Image: Cheshire Police